What an awesome weekend........

The store was all the buzz with Caroline and Lisa there! They arrived around 11am with boxes full of new Maya Road products and the houses for the class. Before the class we had lunch at the Doves Nest and I got the privilege of teaching them Ten Second Studio's metal techniques, check out Carolines blog to see her new metal project. You have got to love Lisa's passion for scrapbooking, she just wanted to get away to browse the shop, it made me feel honored that she thought so highly of our store. Here's a picture of the adorable house they taught.
Everyone LOVED the class and thought these two were the best teachers. Each girl received lots of goodies to take home and a few even won some door prizes. They are coming back, so do not worry if you missed this class, there will be another one. Lisa is going to come demonstrate Fiskar products, so keep a look out for these events.

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH CAROLINE & LISA FOR COMING TO THE CRAFTY SCRAPPER.....WE LOVE YA!
My son even tried to join in on the class. After everyone left he painted his own house!

Then Sunday we had a little birthday party for one of our dear friends, Hector! HAPPY BIRTHDAY HECTOR......WE LOVE YOU!

Challenge Yourself!

Do you find yourself comfortable with the style and themes of your work? So do I. I find though that I can get in a rut and my layouts or work starts to take on the same format or colors. Here are some things that can pop you out of your routine--in a good way. Take a challenge. Many magazines have guidelines for submissions listed and we here at the Crafty Scrapper have swaps listed on the forum here. Even if you do not submit your project, doing the technique or theme listed is good for your work. It makes you think of things differently. Often you find a new style you like, new colors or new ways to put things together just following the guidelines listed.

Now of course, we would love to have you participate in our swaps and turn in the work. It is great for everyone. You stretch your mind, bend the edges of your comfort zone and others get to see what you have done and learn from you! You will learn new things from the others as well. Currently, there is a monthly card challenge, a monthly recipe card challenge, a layout challenge and starting soon, a monthly ATC swap. Take a look at the forum and see what you can do to push yourself into a new zone!

I LOVE MY SCRAPONIZER

Paper isn't just for making beautiful layouts. It is also for home decore and organizational items like this wonderful SCRAPONIZER. This wonderful set of little ornizational boxes contain the contents of of several drawers in my scrapping desk.

I love the fact that I was able to cover these light weight plastic boxes with my own paper. My favorite paper right now is from GRAPHIC 45. On June 10th, I get to move into my new scrapbooking room. The inspiration for my whole room is this line of paper. I love it.

I added a metal plate to the inside of the paper holder and my cute little bee magnets stick to it beautifully.

I hope you will go on into The Crafty Scrapper to check out these great little Scraponizers. They are selling like hotcakes.

Meyerson Field Trip Mini Album

This is the latest mini-book I completed, boy I am on a kick with these! Three in a row, I am going to have to do a 12 x 12 just to see if I can still do large format! I got to chaperon my sweet daughter's class to the Meyerson Symphony Center for a field trip. The pictures are mostly Candide's of the kids waiting to go in, they would not allow us to take pic's during the presentation. But the kid's in Porter's class are so DARN cute!!!! I have really enjoyed getting to know them being able to volunteer at the school. Techniques...... well I used them all!!!! Hehehehe! Let me go down the list and try to remember all the manufacturer's:
Fabric paper, bling, misters, stitching, hand titles, rub-on's, painting, sanding, inking, stamping, metal, gaffer's tape and 3-d embelies.
Manufacturer's:
Maya Road's. Love, Elsie, Luxe Design's, 10 second studios, Creative Imaginations, Fancy Pants, Autumn Leaves, Making Memories, Meri Meri Accents, Bazzil, Ranger, Perfect Pearls, Petaloo, Daisey D's, Jenni Bolin, 7 gypsies, Heidi Swapp, Queen and Co., StazOn, and Chalk Ink.
My..my... I think I do love everybody!!!!!
I can sure jam a bunch..... and here I had labeled myself as a Garanimals scrapbooker because I tend to purchase all of the same line because I don't like trying to match paper. I really love this color palate too, I do so much "girlie", I am loving the orange!!!!
Have a scrappy day!!!!

Heidi

3 Days until the Maya Road class.........

Several of you have called this week to tell me how excited you are about Saturday. Caroline who is one of the owners of Maya Road and her DT coordinator Lisa Pace, who I just found out is a Memory Maker Masters 2008 , are coming to teach one of their new houses with a cute album tucked inside. As I was kitting the class up I thought "why am I not taking this class, look at all the goodies they are getting!" I may hide in a corner and maybe they will not notice I am there, LOL! You guys are going to love Caroline and Lisa and I hear they are awesome teachers, it should be a fun day. If you didn't get in the class do not worry, I am going to talk Caroline into coming back after summer to teach again.

BFF book....

Last night when i left TCS i told Carolyn i am going home to create... she looked at me and said "well ok"........ and that is what i did. I picked up a few new things i had not had before (mostly ranger distressing items) and home i went.

So i decided to make a little BFF book of my friend Shell and I. I am still waiting on a few pics from her (older pics) but this will do for now. I used Ranger Crackle paint, MR chip board and sheer, and Daisy D's paper

A Card Caddy for Grandma......

We have taught this card caddy as a class several times, and it has always been one of the most popular classes. It also makes a great gift, even for someone who is not into scrapbook stuff. My step mom loved the one I made for an aunt at Christmas, and she kept saying "I could use that, I really like that!" So I made her this one for her birthday...unfortunately its a little late because I keep adding to it.
I sewed the top paper on every paper and even stitched the trail behind the ladybug...I love using the sewing machine on paper.
Love the Maya Road chipboard, I used it all throughout the book. My favorite are the trees, I seem to use them a lot.
If you haven't used the new stitching stuff from Bazzill, you need to try them. I used the flourish template on the April page and the paisley on the November page.


This is my favorite page, its hard to see the details. I used a Maya Road chipboard snowflake, covered it with sparkles, layered a prima paper snow flake on top and dded a clear button with a snow flake rubon on the button.

Anniversary - Who Knew???

Today is my wedding anniversary. I am just crazy about my husband - no doubt. But I know NO ONE who thought we'd last (or survive). Fooled 'em.

Randall loves Vegas, so I made him a slot machine card. I soooooo copied this from someone else. But he won't ever know that!

I have no shame when it comes to copying a great idea. I hope you find lots of great ideas here on our blog to copy!

Susie

Creative Inspiration

Hi, you guys! One of the best things I did over spring break was pull an (almost) all-nighter with my super-scrappin pal, Melissa. When she and I get together, it amazes me how we feed off each other's creativity! After a fun trip to shop at the Crafty Scrapper we scrapped til 3am and most of the next day too. I accomplished several big projects. The one I want to share with you today used the awesome Blackboard mini-album from Cosmo Cricket and the oh-so-cool journal cards from Fancy Pants. Not to mention the best opaque white writer I have EVER used (and I've used them all, baby)...the Ranger white writer. I got Melissa so hooked on it that she couldn't stop writing!

One of my sisters turns 40 this year and this book is for her. Every year we have our sister's weekend getaway (there are 5 of us) and celebrate our sisterhood. In other words, we shop, eat, and laugh! Since Amy is turning 40 we are doing an extra-special celebration. We will all travel to her home in Palm Springs, CA. We are going to spend a couple of days in LA and are gonna try to get on to the Ellen show! (Of course I digi-scrapped transfers for t-shirts that we will all wear to MAKE Ellen love us, and that I'll show you on a future post!) SO...I made this little book o' inspiration to give to Amy to keep her celebrating herself all year long!

Here's some up close pictures. It was so easy, quick, and fun to make. The Fancy Pants journal cards come in a 12x12 sheet and are dirt cheap. Their colors are brilliant and with the white pen, really jump off the black chipboard backgound. Try your own little inspirational album! You will be hooked! Much love and scrappin', Annette

This one is a cute Winnie the Pooh saying. I added gaffer tape and a Maya Road tree.
The final project at a glance...

Stamp Album (A Hybrid Project)

When I was at The Crafty Scrapper, I noticed this great Maya Roads Album. I thought it would be the perfect size.

I painted it with red paint. I also added these great handles from 7 Gypsies. I made a hole with my crop-o-dile and just squeezed the little studs. Then handles can be placed on the inside or the outside of the album.

I was going to let Sam play with all of my stamps and take a picture of him for the cover, but I thought that would take too much clean up. So I extracted his picture in PSE4 and added digital doodles, stamps and paint to him. I used Weeds and Wildflowers "A Better Me" and the "Celebrating Color Series."

For the inside of the book, I took the cover of the unmounted stamps and scanned them onto a transparency. I then cut off the title of the package and the vin. I thought this would be great to have in one spot in case I ever decide to submit something for publication. Then I wouldn't have to search for the information, it would all be right in one spot. The stamps cling great to the transparency.

When this book is in the shelf I can see the title on the binding. But, this book is portable. These handles make it easy to grab the binder and off I go. I plan to make one of these for each of my stamping categories. I may also make one for travel where I can just slap in the sheets of the stamps I need for the different crops.

With Maya Roads and these great handle from 7 Gypsies, the possibilities are endless.

On a totally unrelated note, today I took Sam to the Easter Egg Hunt at Colonial. He looked very cute. He couldn't find a basket he liked. So I painted an apple bushel basket to look like a tiger. Sam added the little Tiger from a store that shall remain nameless and we added lots of ribbon. BTW- If you need ribbon, The Crafty Scrapper has gotten in some of the most beautiful ribbon in the world. If you are a ribbon junkie like me, you are going to want to go check it out!

Our dear friend Marie, Ellis County's newest and hottest photographer, has been doing mini spring sessions this week with the cutest ducks. And yes she still has a few openings next week so call her 972.937.9511. She loves posing my son and photographing him, in her words:

"And the boy that truly belongs in a gap ad because he can WORK it"

Hope everyone has a Happy Easter and the Easter bunny brings you lots of chocolate!

Easter Basket

So at 8:30 tonight, I got the idea to make some Easter baskets for the folks at work. We are all on 3 separate floors, so I went to the store and bought stuff for three baskets. Well, one of the floors is just going to have to go to another floor to get their goodies. It is 1:40 and I just finished the second basket. I am calling it a night.

These weren't hard OR time consuming to make...but I spent my second hour undoing what I did in the first hour....then I finally figured out what I really wanted to do. I think my project turned out pretty well. Now I just need some shut eye before my alarm goes off!

Bottom line - take a chance. Fix it if you don't like it and move on. But create - always create.

Susie

Happy Easter Card

When this paper hit the racks, it somehow jumped right into my hands. About 3 sheets of it, actually.

I have been so busy, that my Easter card list shrunk to only 20 - which makes me sad because I had so many more folks who deserved a Happy Easter card from me. But on the flip side of that...am I learning my limitations? Hmmm...maybe.

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So this is my Easter card. I think the paper is so gorgeous, I could have just sent some of that to everyone - but instead I dolled it up a bit. Here is what the inside looks like:

I must now resume my Easter Egg basket making and filling for my friends at work.

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Happy Easter everyone.

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Susie

Thing's that make me HAPPY right now!!!

These are the thing's making me happy today! I did not get a chance to post yesterday because I got a chance to hang with my sweet oldest daughter and go to Caroline's and scrapbook. She decided (and she is not a scrapper) to make a mini album for her Dad for his birthday. So since I was getting the Bind it All, we decided to get a chipboard cover and ivory pages to go with the new "Guy" line by Fancy Pants. Is it not beautiful!!!! I told her the song "Because of You" reminds me of her relationship with her dad and my sweet girl thought that would be awesome to use it in her scrapbook, how to make your scrap mama proud!!!! Also, the things that are inspiring me right now is the new ScrapOnizer, yes I can see every one of my stickles (Suzie, I did have black, yeah!!!) and every one of my Ranger misters. Woo Hoo! Also I love looking at this shelf in my scraproom, idea books, a huge jar of beautifil ribbon, and my unadorned MM "C". Love it!!! Stay inspired in all you do! Have a scrappy day!
Heidi

Scrap Lift with a twist...

A few days ago while my hubby was grocery shopping i decided to browse a few scrap mags.
While browsing i found a pic of the cutest card ...I combined that idea with a class i took from Annette last year and this is what i came up with. Since i posted a pic of the card on the forum i decided to trim the skirt straight on the bottom i think i like it better this way.

It was so simple to do, i just free handed what looked like a tank top cut it out, and glued strips of paper that i cut with the wavy blade and my cutterpede, tied a ribbon around the waist and sprayed the whole thing with a mister filled with water and perfect pearls.

Black Diamond Stickles

Do you own Black Diamond Stickles? No? Oh my...get up right now and get to the store.

Black Diamond Stickles saved the life of this card...and a few others too. This card was about to soar into the trash - but I felt pity for it and left it overnight on my table.

The next morning I remembered the savior of all pathetic cards - BLACK DIAMOND STICKLES. I applied a generous amount to the flower center and it changed the look of the whole card.

Now this card is signed and about to pop into an envelope. Without the black diamond stickles, I shudder to think where it would be now (the trash man comes tomorrow).

Susie

Jock Wannabe Album "take 2"

Here are the balance of the pages....